How Close Is Aaron Rodgers to Breaking Brett Favre's QB Records?

In the last week or so, statements by Brett Favre make it seem certain that a reunion between Favre and the Green Bay Packers will soon take place.

That didn't seem possible for a while, especially after the messy divorce between the Packers and Favre took place in 2008. Then, to make matters worse, Favre played two seasons (2009-10) with the rival Minnesota Vikings, after the Packers had first traded Favre to the New York Jets in 2008.

But the situation has certainly gotten better, especially after Favre and Aaron Rodgers appeared together at the NFL awards show during Super Bowl weekend.

Rodgers has gone out of his way to make sure that Favre is welcomed back to the Packers. Rodgers spoke about that on his ESPN 540 radio show a couple days after the NFL awards show.

Brett is two years removed from the game. He's going to obviously be in the Packers Hall of Fame. He'll get his number retired, and he'll be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the next few years. It's important, I think, to make sure that he's recognized for all the accomplishments that he's achieved in our organization especially. He's still very dear to many of our fans for the things that he's done for the Packers on the field. You can never take that away.

As the face of the franchise, I felt like it was important that I took a leadership role in that. Not that one was needed now, but I thought it was good timing to just let the fans know, let Brett know, let's move forward. Let's heal things up and let's move forward.

Earlier this week, Favre appeared on Sirius XM NFL radio with Bruce Murray and Jim Miller. Favre talked about his record-breaking 16-year career with the Packers and what a positive experience it had been for him.

Favre also went out of his way to praise his successor (Rodgers) at quarterback for the Packers.

Aaron has played extremely well, probably even better than anyone anticipated, but I knew he was capable of that and that’s why they drafted him. Barring any injury he’ll shatter everything I ever did there except for maybe consecutive games.

Favre has most of the passing records for the Packers, although Rodgers already owns a few of his own.

For instance, Rodgers has the highest passer rating in Green Bay history with a 104.9 mark. Favre is second with a 85.8 rating. Rodgers is also the highest-rated passer in NFL history.

Rodgers has the highest completion percentage in team history, too, with a 65.7 percent mark. Favre is second again at 61.42 percent.

Rodgers has the record for the most yards passing in a season as well, with 4,643 in 2012. Favre (4,413) is fourth on that list, behind Lynn Dickey (4,458) and Rodgers (4,434 in 2009).

In addition to that, Rodgers holds the team mark in 300-yard passing games in a season (eight) plus the mark for most touchdown passes in a season (45).

But for the most part, it is Favre who still has most of the team records at quarterback for the Pack, and we are going to look at some of those records to determine if Rodgers has a real shot to break those marks.

Career Touchdown Passes (Regular Season)

Brett Favre threw 442 career touchdown passes as a Packers. That averages out to 27.6 per season in the 16 years he played with the Pack.

Aaron Rodgers currently has 171 career touchdown passes. In his five years as a starter, Rodgers has averaged 34 touchdown passes per season.

Rodgers trails Favre by 271 touchdown passes. If Rodgers continues to throw touchdown passes at his current annual pace, he will need a little under eight seasons to eclipse Favre's mark.

In an interview with Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press-Gazette a few days ago, Rodgers talked about how long he would like to continue playing with the Packers.

I said (in the past) eight more (years). I played eight (seasons), I think I can get eight more. But this contract, the way it’s set up, it’s not comparable to some of the other similar contracts where the cap number becomes so large at the end of three and four and five [years] where they might have to re-do it. I think we can legitimately see this all the way through seven years. Now that would take very consistent play from me, for me to be worth those numbers for the next seven years. But I fully expect to play well and if I can play seven more good years and we can have some more success and win a couple more [titles], then it might be time to hang them up.

If Rodgers does indeed play eight more seasons, then he has a good chance to break Favre's career touchdown pass record with the Packers.

Career Passing Yardage (Regular Season)

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Brett Favre threw for 61,655 yards in his 16-year career with Green Bay.

Aaron Rodgers has thrown for 21,661 yards to date. He has averaged just over 4,266 yards a season as the staring quarterback for the Packers. If he averages that over each season down the road, Rodgers would need a little over nine seasons to pass Favre for career passing yards.

And even if Rodgers averages the amount he has thrown for the last two seasons—which is 4,469 yards a season—Rodgers would still need almost nine years to pass Favre's record.

This makes it seem unlikely the Rodgers will ever catch Favre in this particular category.

Career Passing Yardage in the Postseason

Brett Favre threw for 5,311 yards in 22 postseason games with the Packers. That's an average of just over 241 yards a game.

Aaron Rodgers has thrown for 2,312 yards in eight games. That averages out to 289 yards a game.

Rodgers trails Favre by 2,999 yards at this point. If Rodgers stays on his current pace in terms of passing yards per game in the postseason, he will need just over 10 games to break Favre's career mark.

This is another record where Rodgers has a good chance of passing Favre over time.

Consecutive Starts at Quarterback

Brett Favre started a remarkable 253 straight games with the Packers over 16 seasons. He added 44 more starts with the Jets and the Vikings before the streak finally ended at 297.

No Packers quarterback, including Aaron Rodgers, will ever break that mark. Rodgers has been pretty durable over five seasons as a starter, as he has only missed two contests in 80 overall games in that span. One was due to a concussion, while the other was because head coach Mike McCarthy decided to rest Rodgers after the Packers had already clinched home-field advantage.

Rodgers best mark is 45 consecutive starts from 2008-10.

Favre's record of consecutive starts is truly mind-boggling and phenomenal.